Food porn: all kinds of good

Lots of corned beef, a slice of aged goat gouda cheese, some BBQ sauce and a tad of sweet mustard. It was simple, delicious and since both the meat and cheese were at room temperature - they just melted in my mouth.

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Argentinian style rib area beef.

It was soft and juicy, with one side covered in fat that sort of melted upon touch but was also fun and crispy in some bites. You can see the rib bone on the bottom.

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Fava beans over white rice. They're cooked with crushed tomatoes and lots of confit garlic cloves. This was easy to make and a pleasure to eat.

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A slice of pizza I grabbed at some remote location. It was amazing, with this old-school flavor to the sauce, and the cheese was creamy and soft in a manner I've yet to encounter.

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Open pit asado style BBQ chicken. It was a smoky heavenly deliciousness. There was some rub involved but it wasn't really coated in a way that traditional American BBQ is.

Trancio: a whole lotta pizza

I'm gonna make a list to create some order in my thoughts. It's really hard to think after this meal.

• Thick soft crust, tons mozzarella, that's the exclusive cheese at Trancio.
• The sauce is crushed tomatoes, some basil, and according to the staff there's some garlic too but apparently not enough to my taste.
• The slices are huge and there's an option to get a slice and a half which is way better value for money.
• There are absolutely no toppings or variations. No other dishes, just this.
• The place is absolutely new.
• They claim that the recipe is an original from south Italy.
• I gotta admit that this is an unusual pizza, not the best one I've had but it has really specific texture and flavors that make you wanna come back (I've been there twice already). 

As I've said, it's a huge slice, it's about 300 grams when an average slice is about 80.
The cheese and dough quickly settle in your stomach like a huge tasty rock and you just want to sleep.
Luckily they're placed not that far from where I live so I can get to bad fast enough.

Stir fried vegetables on white rice

Check out this yummy goodness:

What you see is white rice, but above that rice is a pile of amazing flavors, string at me, waiting to be eaten, and all I do is take pictures while I drool.

Zucchinis, mushrooms, shavings of ginger, carrots, bits of red bell peppers, stir fried with freshly ground black pepper and whole cloves of garlic, with some mustard grains and grainy mustard, and then stir fried further with date syrup for that extra sweetness and a touch caramel flavor \ color.

I sometimes add various curry pastes to the mix, every paste has a different flavor and behaves differently upon frying so it's always interesting to experiment taste and explore.

This is a great side dish but is also good enough for a vegetarian main course (also vegan if you use the right ingredients). 

Corned beef sandwich

Just for a moment, try to ignore this amazing sandwich.
Look at those gherkins. They tasted better than you imagine.

Now, the sandwich.
Woeber's Sandwich Pal horseradish sauce, spicy mustard, date syrup, lettuce, tomatoes, 400 grams of juicy corned beef.
All served between two slices of super fresh rye bread.

Again, you read the letters, you make words in your head, your imagination starts working overtime.
Yet again, you can't even imagine how amazing this sandwich was.

Food porn? YES.
Me being a tease? Well, no. I'm dying for one of these right now and I'm at work, pretty far away, it's scorching hot outside, this place discontinued their delivery service and I'm as miserable as you probably are.

Porcini and cheese tortellini with caponata sauce

I had lunch at this place not far from my work, it's called "Laboratorio di Pasta".
There were many interesting types and shapes of pasta but the sauces offered weren't that amazing.
The place itself is designed in an interesting manner bordering between rustic and modern.

The pasta is cooked upon ordering (if I'm not mistaken it's precooked and frozen), dropped into boiling water as soon as your order is typed.
There are several large pots, constantly heated, containing the sauces. As I've mentioned, I tried three sauces and they were just okay.

My personal scale for measuring pasta sauces is based on the flavor and my ability to recreate a similar product at my home, with basic ingredients and not much effort.
Sadly the sauces were not fancy enough nor were they extremely special in flavor.
That said, the cheese and porcini tortellini was amazing.

The service was on the slow side, one of our orders wasn't processed, I personally saw my food sitting there  while the person behind the counter just did nothing. The value for money wasn't that great either, but damn, that tortellini was so good!

One last complaint: the vegetables in the caponata sauce were too thinly diced and hardly felt.

Food porn: all things that are good

The city offers too many temptations.

I try to resist but I really love these good times out and about with friends and food.

This is another chapter in my diary, hope you like it.

A hot plate of goulash stew over white rice. I was really sick  that day and had very little ability to taste. The only thing I really recall is that I felt there wasn't enough meat.

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A lovely plate of deep fried cauliflower. I actuallyate a pretty good steak afterwards but this was the dish to remember. The dip was an aioli based on pickled lemons. A real delight.

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Just a pepperoni pizza from Domino's, simple and delicious. The pepperoni was spicy and crispy, there was lots and lots of cheese on the pizza and it wasn't dry (nor too wet with sauce).

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This is from one of the controversial places in the area. They're too cheap to be real, but there are plenty of disadvantages. The place operates like so: You choose whatever meat you wish and pay for it. You take the raw skewers and go to the BBQ area where you give your food to a person that prepares it for you.
In the meanwhile you can go and buy fries, hummus, a jar of homemade spicy pickles, a variety of breads (the most popular is laffa), and some other stuff. Some of the sauces are free and there's a huge container of salad that is free. The place is minimally designed - like you would imagine a warehouse. It's not really clean (but the dishes are) and no one bothers to be nice. This is quite an experience.

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Stir fried beef with eggplants in a sweet and spicy sauce over white rice with egg drops. It was pretty good.

Grilled Cheese Sandwich w. Mushrooms and Sriracha

Yesterday I fancied some mushrooms.

I'm not sure how does one get that specific craving, but on my way home back from work I stopped for that purpose only. 

I bought a basket of champignon mushrooms and continued my way home - thinking about what to prepare.

Making grilled cheese sandwiches was a sudden decision, influenced by a smell in the building as I made my way up the stairs. I suddenly wanted cheese, grilled cheese, stringy and crispy and fun.

Since I was already set on cooking with musrhooms - I chose to use sriracha alone. The cheese and the smoky spicy sauce combined with mushrooms are enough flavors for one simple sandwich.

Cooks often ignore the stipes and use only the caps. I like to use the whole mushroom, but this time I had to save space due to the toasters limitations so I just ate the stipes and some whole mushrooms too while I was at it. I'm not sure what it is about the taste of fresh mushrooms, but I really love it, the earthiness, the nutty flavors, the meat like texture.

Now all I had to do was squeezing the bread together gently with my hand into a sandwich form, just applying some pressure to make a sandwich form.

The moistness of the mushrooms and sauce started to show on the bread.

On to the toaster.

The above mentioned moistness and the actual fluids from within the mushrooms caramelized inside the toaster, creating a lovely golden \ rusty color and a crunchy bite.

I allowed my creation to cool down for a bit - inside the shut down toaster, thus it was still how but not as humid as it would be on a cold plate. 

While everything was cooling down I prepared a cold glass of club soda.

I also ate all the mushrooms that were left. 

The grilled cheese was awesome. A great thing about sriracha is that becomes sweet after it's been heated, thus making it spicy, sweet, smoky, this made the whole meal taste like wonderfulness in my mouth.

Several hour later I got a bit hungry again.

Being fresh out of mushrooms I went trough the fridge looking for something that I could turn into a quick snack. I found a jar of homemade chimichurri that my girlfriend's mom gave me on the weekend.

Turned out great :)

This monkey's gone to heaven

Imagine there's a mediocre place near your house, it serves mediocre food but the price is right and they even have good days on which the food is great. This imaginary place serves humus, shawarma, skewered meat and other staples of the Arab cuisine.

Now imagine that this made up place is closed for renovation. They splash some paint around, move the furniture, cover the floor with old newspaper. A sign on the see through glass door says it'll be open in no time.

They never come back tough. The place is closed, the work just ceased one day. Nothing moves inside, no one, no sign of live. The place is abandoned.

This happened to me. This place is real to me.

The place was always packed, there was no sign of anything going wrong.

Was this my fault? Did I not deserve a place near my home that serves a variety of food that I like?

This is in loving memory of Sayid's Original Hummus of Akko (the Tel-Aviv branch).

Superb falafel balls with fries and some ketchup

Fresh salad: cucumber, tomato, parsley, all finely chopped and served with lemon juice

A lovely plate of humus, with soft chickpeas in the middle, covered with olive oil and tahini

Food thoughts: Italian stuff and sandwiches

Something is terribly wrong with the way Domino's make cheesy bread around here. It's dry, not cheesy enough and the dips are not that great either. At first I hoped it was a one time thing but after a few orders I realized this is just the way they prepare it and that sucks.

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I was stuck at work and hungry as hell. Someone said they're ordering from a place I hate - there was not choice, it was either that or starving. I went for the pasta deal, hoping it will suck less than the other stuff I've tried. To my surprise it was pretty good, the salad was fresh and its vinaigrette sauce was heavenly; the pasta was cooked to perfection with a sauce that resembled a home made sauce with rich flavors of fresh tomatoes; there was freshly bottled lemonade, a bun that came in handy for the sauce that was left, some butter and a lemon muffin for desert. The grated parmesan was fresh and rich in flavor (I used it on both the pasta and the salad), and there was even a stick of butter that also complimented the bun. As if that wasn't enough, it wasn't even expensive!

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Pesto and mustard, corned beef, in a sweet sesame roll. There were bits of kabanos (Polish smoked dry sausage) on the side, and some disgusting olives. The sandwich was okay but I was promised this places is incredible. It wasn't. 

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Just some roast beef in a baguette with tomatoes and mustard. Nothing special to look at but sure felt good in my mouth.

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This pizza was dry, with a taste of burned even. The roquette and arugula mix was not fresh at all, it might have been just old or overheated in the oven. This pizza was an epic fail.

Food porn: pizza and meats

I gladly present four dishes I'd love to eat each and every day + one I don't ever want to see again.

Enjoy!

A new place called Kababa - a word play on kabab (kebab an Arab word for skewed meat) and baba (father) is now serving chicken shawarma alongside veal doner and a variety of skewers. All of the above might sound very old-school and hardcore but the place is operated like a McDonald's, with trays, brand paper cups and lots of employees to take your order and put it into a touch screen computer. Also: the meat is cut by a robot!

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Thin crust pizza with pineapple, corn and eggplants. It was awesome when it was hot but half an hour later it became tasteless. Seriously, it went from being a great pizza into cardboard just like that.

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This never came near my mouth but I just had to take a photo. I'm not a fan of meatballs or minced stuff in general. It sure smelled good but still - I feel bad just looking at it.

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A slice from a nearby Sbarro with a side of grape drink. This is a personal favorite that goes back to childhood. This specific branch was closed several weeks after I took the photo :(

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These gherkins alone are amazing but that whole meal is just mind-blowing. Turkey pastrami, corned beef, mustard cut with date syrup, it was like a miracle in my mouth. All that and an ice cold can of Dr Pepper.

Food porn: sandwiches, hummus, noodles

People looking from the outside might think that I keep eating variations of the same foods all over again. Sure, some veggies, a sandwich, hummus, meat, noodles. Yeah, I guess that's about right.

Are not all foods are variations on a limited amount of ingredients?

Is music not a variation on the same 7 notes all over again?

This is from a new place called Mikveh Sandwich Bar. They close up even before I get off work so this was on my day off. I tried two sandwiches and they were pretty good. Not the best ever but they are singled out by the fact that MSB bake their own bread which is a Moroccan semi flat mini loaf and it's wonderful. They also make most of the sauces, cure all of the meats and make the most amazing spicy home-fries.

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Just a lil' something I made at home. Cherry tomatoes in balsamic vinegar over sprouts. The meat in the sandwich is from a deli and the bread is also bought but the I did create the bell pepper spread inside it.

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A great plate by Assaf, I've previously mentioned it - it is wonderful.

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A corned beef sandwich that really deserves respect ad appreciation. Just look at it!

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This is called The Imperial New Dish: whole flour egg noodles, chicken, pork, bacon, green veggies, spicy sauce and cashew nuts. I also added shredded peanuts on top and there was a party in my mouth and belly.